Texas History Minute

The month of March 1836 began with high hopes and idealism for Texas forces trying to free themselves from Mexico, but a string of military disasters pushed the Texas army to the edge of collapse In the midst of these losses, one of the darkest incidents of the war occurred as more than 400 prisoners were executed at Goliad

The Texas Revolution began in November 1835 after longsimmering disputes with Mexico exploded into open warfare Events in Texas were part of a series of uprisings and rebellions that spread across Mexico, which had the effect of eroding the forces still loyal to the government The commander of the Mexican Army, Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, declared in December that any foreign prisoners taken would be immediately executed Santa Anna was president of Mexico eleven times in its turbulent early history, willing to overthrow elected governments and subvert Mexican law whenever it suited him

In the meantime, Texas settlers fought several small battles with Mexican forces and attempted to organize their resources James Fannin, a Georgia native and onetime West Point cadet, served under Gen Sam Houston, head of Texas forces, to piece together an army Houston appointed him as a colonel In January 1836, Fannin led an expedition toward Matamoros on the south side of the Rio Grande When news came in February that Gen Jose Urrea had taken the city, Fannin pulled back to Goliad to prepare their defenses at an old Spanish presidio Fannin had renamed Fort Defiance

After the Alamo fell to Santa Anna’s forces in early March and all defenders killed, Houston ordered Fannin to withdraw toward Victoria Fannin hesitated but ultimately left On March 19, Urrea’s forces caught up to Fannin The armies fought at Coleta Creek, but Fannin was outnumbered three-to-one By the next morning, faced with low ammunition and many injuries, Fannin attempted to negotiate his surrender to Urrea

The Geneva Convention would not be ratified for decades but already standards were expected for treatment of prisoners of war Fannin agreed to surrender and give up all weapons Urrea ordered them to march back to Fort Definace, now under Mexican control By March 25, Fannin’s 240 men were joined by 80 more prisoners from the Texas loss at Refugio

Urrea had no desire to execute these men and had promised that they would be treated well He pled for the lives of the Texans, but Santa Anna would have none of it He insisted they all be shot Not trusting his general, Santa Anna sent orders directly to Urrea’s subordinate, Col Jose Portilla, who commanded the garrison Portilla ordered his men to take the prisoners out of the garrison on March 27, Palm Sunday, and marched them into a nearby field His officers lined up the Texas prisoners, took aim, and fired A storm of bullets mercilessly cut through everything in their paths, and the Texas soldiers fell to their deaths The sight of hundreds of bodies before Portilla and his senior officers was not enough Several were still alive but wounded, and Portilla ordered them beaten to death The eighty men wounded at Coleto Creek and too weak to move were then taken out and shot Fannin was forced to watch the entire slaughter He was then taken to the fort and executed

The bodies – more than 430 men -- were then put into a pile and burned No effort was made at a burial The remains were left to rot in the field

A month later, after the Battle of San Jacinto, Santa Anna himself was a prisoner of war, felled by his own arrogance Certainly thoughts of the slaughter of the prisoners at Goliad and the Alamo came to Santa Anna’s mind The memories of those deaths were certainly in the minds of the Texas troops, many of whom called for revenge Instead, he was forced to surrender and to order all remaining Mexican troops out of Texas Santa Anna was sent to the United States and eventually released He continued to cast a dark shadow on the unstable Mexican political situation until he was exiled from Mexico for good by 1855 Gen Urrea, in the meantime, came to despise Santa Anna Within a year, Urrea was leading an army against him The effort to topple Santa Anna failed, and Urrea was sent to prison in 1838.

Texas had to face the consequences of the horrors at Goliad It had lost hundreds of soldiers but also lost talented men ready to put their gifts to use for the future of Texas when the peace returned Once the war ended, Gen Thomas Rusk rode out to the site of the deaths In June 1836, he had his men provide a proper burial

Identification of the individual dead was now impossible, but they were buried with full military honors A memorial was erected at the site in 1938

Dr Bridges is a Texas native, writer, and history professor. He can be reached at drkenbridges@gmail.com.

Imagine what we are missing

When we hold a tiny baby in our arms, do we consider how devoted they will be to God, or do we just see the natural and physical possibilities? As Christians, we have the opportunity to become as close to God and spiritually sensitive as we desire with the potential to discern wisdom that is hidden from our earthly understanding An important question is how many people, including all those tiny babies, will make the most important decision to follow this type of lifestyle? I realize it’s a sobering subject, but one that I believe is worth considering

y Holland

In Luke chapter two, we read about an individual named Simeon who was a spiritually dedicated man of prayer and fasting as he is described in verse 25, “righteous and devout with the Holy Spirit upon him ” He was there when Mary and Joseph brought baby Jesus (who was probably no older than three months) to be dedicated at the temple according to the Law of Moses God had promised this elderly man that he would not pass away until he had seen the king of all kings and on the very same day that Mary and Joseph went to the temple, Simeon encountered the divine appointment of meeting this special family When he looked at Jesus, he reached out and held him and said, “For with my eyes I have seen the Lord’s salvation ” Simeon proceeded to prophesy over the child and even though Mary and Joseph were already aware that Jesus was the Savior of the world, they still marveled at Simeon’s words. Allow us to pause a moment and consider that this man would not have recognized the Christ child if he had not been walking in a high level of spiritual sensitivity Mary and Joseph appeared to be just another average normal family that blended in with the massive crowd and yet Simeon immediately was easily able to identify the Lord Later in the same chapter, we learn about an elderly prophetess named Anna who also worshiped and prayed to God in the temple night and day It just so happened that she was there that day and she too recognized baby Jesus as the Son of God Anna, who some have calculated to have been over 100years-old, began to boldly tell the crowd about how this child would be the redeemer of God’s people Now I realize that older people usually go on and on when they see an infant and say things like, “they are really going to be amazing” but this was definitely different Those who passed by probably thought, “Now isn’t that touching, a nice elderly lady making over a tiny baby” and then went on about their business However, let us note the reason they were not absolutely ecstatic about what she is saying is because they were unable to perceive the reality that God was right in front of them Could it be the lack of spiritual sensitivity is the reason why many times we do not notice the presence of God in our busy everyday life?

We realize that Christians are to live in a high level of awareness, but we must admit we are weak and easily distracted I have a question; if we are called to develop a deeper spiritual cognizance where we know what is going on around us, then what is the consequence if we refuse? By thinking, feeling, deciding, and walking in our default nature, we are literally rebelling against the way God intended for us to exist Since we are actually saying we are not interested in listening to or following God’s plans and are not passionate about doing his will, how could he possibly be pleased with us? Being devoted to follow the Lord is what being His disciple is all about. Drawing nearer to God enables us to to be filled with His Spirit and this allows us to more keenly understand the spiritual realm So why do we refuse to draw near to God? Because we are more concerned with what we want to do We can no longer blame anyone but ourselves as our real hindrance has everything to do with our own rebellion If spiritual awareness is we had taken our spiritual responsibility more seriously